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Doggie's Tales — Introduction

Doggie

Doggie is the nick name of a very special place in County Durham. Doggie is three villages. Their proper names are Thrislington, Cornforth and West Cornforth. People have lived in Doggie for eight hundred years.

Thrislington

There was a medieval village at Thrislington. It had a manor house, chapel and cottages.

A document written in 1341 tells about the death of a miner called Gilbert. Miners work in a mine digging for coal. People in Doggie call the mine the ‘pit’. Men who work in the pit are called pit men.

This is Gilbert’s story.

Four men were working in a deep pit digging for coal. It was a Wednesday. The men finished their work and came out of the pit. The pit was deep. The way out was steep and narrow. The men pulled on a rope to help them get out of the pit.

One of the pit men was called Gilbert. As he pulled himself out of the pit Gilbert held on to the rope with one hand. In his other hand he held a big pot. He passed the pot from one hand to his other hand. As he did that Gilbert let go of the rope and fell back into the pit.

The three other men dragged Gilbert from the pit. Gilbert was badly hurt. He knew he would die. The men took Gilbert home to Thrislington. Gilbert made his will and the holy man came to pray for him.

Gilbert lay in bed for a week. The village looked after him. Gilbert died at one o’clock on a Thursday morning. The village paid for the rope that had been lost in the pit. There is a quarry where Thrislington used to be.

Cornforth

The name Cornforth comes from two Old English words. Cornforth means Crane Ford or way across the water. The Bishop of Durham had a Water Mill at Cornforth. It was a Fulling Mill. Fulling Mills cleaned wool before it was spun and woven into cloth. Later the Fulling Mill closed and the watermill became a Corn Mill. The Corn Mill ground corn into flour. Flour is used to make bread.

The village of Cornforth grew around the Village Green. Three hundred years ago there were about three hundred and twenty people living in Cornforth. Most people worked at the mill or on farms.

There was a working pit near Cornforth in 1840. It was called Cornforth Colliery. Four thousand more people came to Doggie to get work. A new church and some new houses were built near the Village Green.

West Cornforth

Most of the new people who came to Doggie lived to the west of the village green. This part is called West Cornforth. People came to Doggie to work in the pit, the iron works and coke ovens. Some people came to work in the shops. Some people still worked on the land. New houses, chapels, schools, a station, and a mineral railway, were built for the people who lived and worked in Doggie. Twelve Inns were also built. Inns had places to stay for people who did not have a house. Inns were places to go to meet friends.

Doggie

The name Doggie came from the iron works that made short bars of iron that were bent at right angles. The bars were used on train tracks to hold the rails on to the wooden sleepers and to keep coal and logs in the fire place.

Work

The Pit Men

Most men in Doggie were pitmen. Pitmen are strong, brave and work very hard. In the beginning the only tools pitmen had were a pickaxe and a big shovel. Pit men dig for coal underground often in small spaces. It is very dark underground. It is hot and dusty. Pitmen get very dirty and very tired.

Pitmen dig all through the day and all through the night. They work for a set time. When one group of pitmen have worked their time another group takes over. The work time is called a shift.

When a pit man has to work through the night he goes home to sleep during the day.

Pit men worked in Doggie for about a hundred and twenty years. The whole country needed coal. Coal was burned in homes for cooking and to keep people warm. Trains needed coal to fire steam engines. Power stations and factories needed coal to run machinery.

The Pitmen’s Wives

Pitmen’s wives kept the house clean, did the washing, shopped, cooked food, and looked after the children. It was hard work.

Most houses had one open coal fire. The fire was the only heat in the house. The heat from the fire was used to keep the house warm, heat water, cook food and dry clothes. Everything was done by hand. Cooking and cleaning took a long time.

When a pit man came home he was very dirty. He had a bath in front of the fire. The bath water was heated on the fire in a big pan. The pit man’s wife washed his clothes in the bathwater and dried his clothes in front of the fire.

When a pit man worked at night he had a sleep during the day. The children had to be very quiet. The children went outside to play away from the house. The children played all over Doggie.

Play Places

Some old people have been talking about Doggie and the places they played in when they were children. Some places were old works or where waste came from the pit. Others were important points where people walked to and from Doggie.

Ferryhill Gate.

This was a foot crossing across the main Edinburgh to London train line. Most trains in the 1940s and 1950s were powered by steam. The weight and noise of the big, fast engines would make the ground shake.

Ferryhill Gate was a favourite spot for train spotters. Train spotters collect numbers of engines and trains. Children used to sit on the metal gate as the trains sped past.

The Flying Scotsman was one of the engines everyone liked to see.

The Jubilee Bridge

The Jubilee Bridgeis a footbridge that crosses the main Edinburgh to London train line. It was named for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 when she had been Queen for sixty years. The train line runs through the edge of West Cornforth and Ferryhill, Children liked to go to the Jubilee Bridge to watch the steam locomotives that pulled the trains.

Bill remembers from 1950

The path to the Jubilee Bridge went by slag heaps left from the old iron works. We called this place the ‘Rockies’. We watched cowboy films in the Regent Cinema. It looked like the place where cowboys lived.

Jean remembers her grandad Fred Parkin in 1960.

Grandad Fred was a farmer. He lived in the railway cottage. We went over the Jubilee Bridge to get to his farm. He used to chase the kids off with his stick when they came on his land.

Ken remembers Fred Parkin too.

We used to scrump (steal) apples from trees on Fred’s land. Fred shot at us with a bird gun as we ran away across the train tracks.

Bill remembersthe first Jubilee Bridge was made of wood.

Denniswent to the wooden Jubilee Bridge to watch locomotives. He used to get spelks (wood splinters) in his hands from the Bridge. Dennis saw Fred chasing the kids. Dennis did not take apples. Dennis was a good kid. Fred didn’t chase Dennis.

Joe remembersFred and his double barrelled shot gun.

Jean said that Fred must have had good apples.

Jeanremembers getting covered in smoke as the steam engines went under the bridge. The Bridge was steel with wooden latts. Alanloved standing in the smoke when the trains passed under the Jubilee Bridge.

Jean thinks The Rockies is a good name for the waste land of grey shale hills and thorny shrubs. Jean and her friends played at being the Famous Five and ran up and down them for hours.

Alanremembered two ponds near the waste land. The ponds were small and deep. One day Alan’s brother George was playing at the edge of the pond when the edge gave way. George fell in.

Alan liked the hole in the ground with brick walls from the old gas works. Alan jumped into the hole. It was difficult to get out.

Doggie Wood

Eleanor and Jean liked Doggie Wood. Eleanor walked a lot with her friends. Eleanor and her friends gathered primroses, bluebells, blackberries, strawberries and rosehips. Joe showed Jean newts under logs, they listened to sky larks singing and spotted lots of different butterflies.

The way to Doggie Wood passed by the stone waste from the pit. The waste piled up high. It was called the pit heap or the slag heap.

Coal trucks passed overhead on a huge cable. Full trucks went down one side and empty trucks came back up the other side. The boys tried to jump on the trucks as they passed by.

Eleanorremembers waiting for coal trucks to pass the mineral line on her way to the rope swing in the wood.

Pricey’s Pondwas at the bottom of the pit heap on the way to the wood. Eleanor used to collect frog spawn from the pond. Eleanor built a dam in the stream that went into the pond.

The Duff

Waste water and coal dust mixed together and made a pond. The coal dust settled to the bottom. The water looked very dark.

Bill remembers he used to build rafts that he floated on the duff pond.

Alan and his friend Peter took an old tin bath from one of the allotments to the pond. They wanted to sail the tin bath on the pond. Alan and Peter took an oil lamp from the gates at the railway crossing so that they could see to sail the bath in the dark. Alan and Peter could not swim.

Alan’s brother George told his dad that Alan and Peter were sailing the bath on the pond in the dark. Alan and George’s dad ran to the pond. He shouted at Alan and Peter. Alan and Peter sailed the boat to the side of the pond. Alan and Peter jumped out of the bath and ran off through the brambles.

In the winter the water in the pond froze to ice. Alan and his friends walked on the hard ice. The ice began to crack. Alan went through the ice into the cold water underneath. Joe pulled Alan out of the pond. Joe saved Alan’s life.

Alan remembers sliding down the pit heap on pieces of rubber belts. Alan had fun.

The Donkey Wood

Ian remembers being in theDonkey Wood in winter in the snow. Ian half-filled plastic sacks with snow. Ian sat on the sack and slid down the snowy hill. Peter got a cold bum. Ian and his friends sped down the hill on their sacks. They tried to slide down fast so that they could go up the next hill.

In summer Ian liked the tartan swing. Ian fell from the swing and broke his arm.

Butcher’s Race

Sandy’sfamily lived in Butcher’s Race. Butcher’s Race is by a stream near Ferryhill. Ferryhill is close to Doggie. Butcher’s Race was the start of a fight that took place near Hett just before the Battle of Neville’s Cross in 1346.

The English King was called Edward the third. In 1346 Edward and his army were fighting against Phillip the fourth of France. The English Army was winning.

King Phillip was friends with King David the second of Scotland. King Phillip asked King David to invade England. King Phillip thought King Edward would bring his army back to England if the Scottish army invaded England. King David and the Scottish army invaded England. They made a camp north of Durham in a big hunting park. The Bishop of Durham owned the hunting park. Most of the land around Doggie and Ferryhill was part of this hunting park.

The English found out that the Scottish army had come to invade. There were some English soldiers left in the north. The English soldiers made an army and went to fight the Scottish army.

Billsaid that the English soldiers had a look out place on the top of the church at Kirk Merrington. The Scottish army did not know that the English army was watching them.

The English soldiers saw a group of Scottish soldiers by a stream near Ferryhill and Doggie. The Scottish soldiers were hunting animals to feed their army. It was a misty day. The English soldiers moved quietly and chased the Scottish soldiers. The Scottish soldiers ran through East Howle and Metal Bridge past Thinford. The English soldiers ran after them. The English soldiers and the Scottish soldiers had a fight on the North Road near Hett near a place called High Butcher’s Race. A lot of Scottish soldiers were killed.

Sir William the leader of the Scottish soldiers told King David that the English soldiers were very fierce. Sir William told King David it would be best if the Scottish soldiers went back to Scotland.

King David did not believe the English army was any good, King David wanted to fight. The Scottish army and the English army had a battle just outside Durham. The battle lasted six hours. It was called the Battle of Neville’s Cross. King David was captured. The English army won.